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that was of any size. I said to whoever was fixing up things, “Be sure that they're met at the door and get taken to that room. I will see them at once. We'll hear what their problem is and I'll wash them off to Miss Abbott.”
We had everybody alerted, and pretty soon they arrived. They were met at the door by a couple of the young men. They were taken to this room, and I went right in. Turner Battle had just been appointed as Assistant to the Secretary. He was George Gordon Battle's nephew and he was an awfully nice, pleasant person. He had graduated from Annapolis. Then he had his usual tour of duty as an ensign. After that he was dropped. The navy has a plucking selective system. They graduate all these people, send them all out for one year, and at the end of one year they look them all over. They drop all but the best hundred or so. Anyhow, he was among those dropped. So he had been in the navy just that one year. He was an engineer by training. I had thought he had some qualifications to recommend him to the Department of Labor. He was a good-looking, polite, well-conducted young man, with good manners. It later turned out that about all he had were his nice manners and nice ways. He had complete
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